22 Jet Bullet Resizing question

[rmc]

I have a S&W 6" 22 Remington Jet. I have only a few factory rounds left but I did save the brass from the rounds I fired.

I have 55 grain .224 FMJ bullets.

Lee precision has
.222 Bullet Sizer & Punch
SKU: 91741

Would this work to resize my .224 bullets or would the jackets be damaged and then just be unusable?

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I did something similar to this downsizing .338" projectiles to .333" for a European gun. The .005" reduction resulted in less than .001" of jacket spring back. I would think that a .002 reduction would have hardly any spring back. 20% spring back would be .0004" (I don't own the tools to measurer that small!)

When doing larger downsizing, the spring back will pull the jacket from the core, resulting in out of center cores that cause Yaw.

When any bullet is being swagged to a new diameter, you need to put a thin layer of lube on the bullet. A quick/light pass with Hornady One-Shot has done the trick for me. On the .333" project, some bullets became "Banana" shaped when not lubed enough and again when lubed too much, I would expect up to 25% loss, and a need to roll them on a glasslike surface to inspect for concentricity.

Different brands of you doner bullets, the jackets and cores will have different alloys and thicknesses, causing different results. So, plan on experimenting at least a little.

There were a few shops that did this out in the world (before Covid), but I don't know if any still exist. The QC varied quit a bit!

Years ago, Barns Bullets used to make custom bullets, minimum order 1000 pieces. Hope this helps,

Ivan

 

[Alk8944]

Many will, no doubt, tell you what a bad idea re-sizing jacketed bullets is, but they are wrong. While there may be accuracy problems with the re-sized bullets there are no other issues. You will only know by trying and seeing how they shoot. Be sure to lubricate the bullets before trying to re-size them. Normal case sizing lubes work just fine. You will want to clean the bullets after sizing to remove residual lubricant.

 

[Venom6]

Kent Bellah, considered an authority on the Jet back in the day, suggested the .224" 37 grain Sisk bullet (1963 Gun Digest). Phil Johnston said the .224" 45 grain Hornady over 2400 gave him 1,608 fps out of his 6" M53 (GUNS Dec.'84 p.24). Lane Pearce wrote in the April '22 issue of Shooting Times (p.24, sic) that if .224" bullets will insert into the chamber mouths with hand pressure "it should be ok to use them." He references a Sierra "data sheet" which also listed .224" bullets for the Jet in a Contender. I treasure a few boxes of old .223" bullets, but now use 35 gr. .224" Vmaxes routinely (my Jet's throats will accommodate them. Not suggesting you do so, just related others' experience.

 

[venomballistics]

It should not pose any problems.
You might like the Lee gas check 55 grain .224 in this cartridge .... to drag you a bit further down the rabbit hole.

 

[rck281]

Kent Bellah, considered an authority on the Jet back in the day, suggested the .224" 37 grain Sisk bullet (1963 Gun Digest). Phil Johnston said the .224" 45 grain Hornady over 2400 gave him 1,608 fps out of his 6" M53 (GUNS Dec.'84 p.24). Lane Pearce wrote in the April '22 issue of Shooting Times (p.24, sic) that if .224" bullets will insert into the chamber mouths with hand pressure "it should be ok to use them." He references a Sierra "data sheet" which also listed .224" bullets for the Jet in a Contender. I treasure a few boxes of old .223" bullets, but now use 35 gr. .224" Vmaxes routinely (my Jet's throats will accommodate them. Not suggesting you do so, just related others' experience.

T/C Contender's had a .224 barrel instead of the .223 in the M53.

 

[dave1918a2]

I have been shooting a Jet since 1975. I have shot the Hornaday .222 40 grain 'Jet' bullets. The Hornaday .223 45 grain 'Hornet' bullets , and a .224 Barnes 40 grain ballistic tip. No problems at all. No pressure signs, no sticking, and good accuracy. Same gun for a very long time.

 

[keith44spl]

I build a die to swage down
.224 bullets to.2225…works great
On lead core bullets.

I use a little crisco to lube ‘em

Having enjoyed the Jet...I really like the Super Jet.

My 53 with a model 18 barrel and the Super Jet cylinder installed.

Sierra 40 gr HP sized down to .2225
Over a dollop of 2400 clocks at 1994 fps
In the four inch barrel revolver.

And my Contender 16 1/2" Super Jet
The same load as above runs 3128 fps

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[rmc]

Parts are on the way. I found reloading data for 55 grain bullets (which I take with a large grain of salt) and and still looking for other sources of info. A friend is sending me an old reloading manual from a small PA reloading press company that went out of business decades ago. He says it has 22 Jet reloading data in it. I'll see when it gets here how it compares to what I already found.

 

[Skeet 028]

I happen to have 3 boxes of the Hornady Jet bullets. As close as I can measure they are about .2225. I have about 800 Sierra 223 bullets for the Hornet. I have swaged 'em down but not really necessary in my Jet. I did swage .224 bullets down in a .222 die...I had "some" real fliers. They were Hornady bullets too. I really didn't think swaging the .224s would be a problem...but they were. The only .224 bullet I have shot in the old Jet were 40 gr Noslers...no real problems

 

[DWalt]

I think I would try loading .224 bullets first and see how well they perform before doing anything else. I suspect .224 bullets will work fine. Experimentation often disproves theory.
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I checked the SAAMI specs. There are none established for the .22 Jet, but the .221 Fireball, .218 Bee and the .22 Hornet diameter tolerance specs are 0.2245"-0.003", i.e. anything in the diameter range of 0.2215"-0.2245" will meet SAAMI specs. Until after WWII, the .22 Hornet used nominal 0.222" bullets but I suppose someone decided .224 bullets were OK.

 

[Protocall_Design]

I'm shooting .357 bullets In a .355 barrel. The gun is a 6" S&W 686 with a custom Walther barrel. I'm getting 3/8" Ransom Rest groups at 25 yds. and a little over 1" groups at 50 yds. The barrel is swaging the bullets down .002. I would try the .224 bullets and let the barrel do the swaging and see how that goes before doing anything else.

 

[DWalt]

Remember the M1888 German Commission 8mm military rifle? It had a 0.318" bore. During WWI, a great many of those rifles were rechambered (actually, just the chamber neck diameter was slightly enlarged) to use the 8x57JS cartridge which used a 0.323" bullet. No problem in doing that. I owned one of those converted M1888s. Never blew up on me and it shot pretty well with the 8x57JS military ammo. Jacketed bullets can be squeezed down quite a bit with no ill effects.

The experience with .22 Jet is that factory-level loads are hard on barrels. The general advice is to use only lighter handloads if you plan to shoot much so as to preserve your barrel. Propellants typically used are H110/296 and 2400. I would also use light bullets, maybe even cast bullets. And not lose any sleep over bullet diameter. Sierra makes 40 and 45 grain .223 bullets. Either would work well if you can find them.

 

[keith44spl]

From the Lyman No. 45 (1970) 22 Jet Data

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